Medical students’ feedback preferences shift as communication training unfolds

First-year international medical students do not value all feedback equally, and what they value changes as they move through a course on communication skills. A longitudinal qualitative study published in Advances in Simulation followed ten first-year international medical students over 36 weeks as they took part in repeated simulated patient consultations, recording how their perceptions of feedback evolved alongside their developing consultation abilities.

The researchers collected data through semi-structured interviews that included structured ranking prompts, together with observation notes taken during tutorial discussions. Across four simulated patient consultations, a clear pattern emerged: simulated patient feedback was valued most highly early in the sequence, peer feedback became more prominent in the middle sessions, and tutorial discussions were rated most highly later in the course.

Interview and observation data pointed to four themes that help explain these shifts. The first, Navigating Stress: The Dynamics of Feedback Utilization and Learning Choices, captures how stress shaped which feedback students used and the learning choices they made. The second, Adapting to the Challenge: How Much to Prepare and What to Do Spontaneously, reflects students’ changing balance between preparation and spontaneity as consultations progressed. The third theme, Reflections to Automate Actions and Consultation Structure, describes how reflection helped students internalize actions and the structure of a consultation. The fourth, Dealing with the Bottleneck: Emotions Are Heavy and Silent, addresses the emotional burden students carried, often without voicing it.

The authors conclude that the perceived value of feedback in repeated simulated patient consultations is developmental rather than fixed. The usefulness of any given feedback source appeared to depend on the changing fit between learner readiness, the demands of the consultation, and the feedback source itself. In practical terms, this implies that feedback processes in communication education should be designed to recognize the changing functions of multiple feedback sources over time, rather than treating any single source as uniformly valuable throughout a course.

Because the study followed a small group of ten students using qualitative methods, its findings describe these students’ experiences in depth rather than establishing generalizable effects.

Subject of Research: How international medical students' perceptions of feedback change during communication skills training with simulated patients

Article Title: From value to valued: a qualitative longitudinal study of international medical students’ feedback perceptions and applications in learning communication skills

Article References: Yu, H., Li, Z., Köhler, S. E., & Asoodar, M. (2026). From value to valued: a qualitative longitudinal study of international medical students’ feedback perceptions and applications in learning communication skills. Advances in Simulation. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41077-026-00488-x

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s41077-026-00488-x

Keywords: medical education, communication skills, feedback, simulated patients, qualitative research, longitudinal study, international medical students, peer feedback, tutorial discussions, simulation, value, valued